Drift

Drift — 12 HP

Slow random modulation source — a random walk with slew smoothing, and the module that keeps everything else from sitting still. It emits three views of the same walk simultaneously: SMOOTH for continuous movement, STEP for the raw jumps, and GATE for a trigger on each new step. Drift is rarely the point of a patch; it is what makes the rest of the patch sound alive.

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Sound in 60 seconds

1. Add Drift alongside any module with a CV input — DroneCore's TIMBRE is a good first target.
2. Patch SMOOTH → TIMBRE CV. Set that attenuverter to about +0.4.
3. Drift starts at RATE 35%, which is roughly 1 Hz. The timbre already moves.
4. Turn RATE down towards 0. At 0% a step lasts a minute and a half.
5. Turn SLEW down. SMOOTH stops gliding and starts jumping, converging on what STEP already outputs.

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Signal flow

        phase accumulator at RATE Hz (0.01 → 10 Hz, exponential)
                          │
        on wrap ──► new random target, step size scaled by WANDER
                          │
                          ├──────────────► STEP OUT   (±5 V, raw)
                          ├─ 1-pole LP ──► SMOOTH OUT (±5 V, slewed)
                          │   SLEW: 1000 Hz (instant) → 0.1 Hz (glacial)
                          └──────────────► GATE OUT   (10 V, 5 ms pulse)

SYNC IN (trigger) ──► reset the phase accumulator
V/OCT IN ────────────────────────────────────────► V/OCT THRU

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Controls

Control	Range	Default	What it does
RATE	0–100%	35%	Step rate, exponential: 0% is 0.01 Hz, 100% is 10 Hz
WANDER	0–100%	50%	How far each new step may move from the last
SLEW	0–100%	50%	Smoothing on SMOOTH: 0% is near-instant, 100% is around 0.1 Hz

Every knob has an attenuverter (−1 to +1) and a CV input.

The RATE curve is exponential, so the useful range is not where you might expect: 0% is one step every hundred seconds, 50% is about 0.3 Hz, and the top of the dial is audio-adjacent. For structural drift under a drone, stay below 30%.

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Ports

Port	Direction	Notes
SYNC	Input	Trigger — resets the phase accumulator, for locking Drift to a clock
RATE / WANDER / SLEW CV	Input	One per knob, each via its attenuverter
SMOOTH	Output	±5 V, slewed. The everyday output
STEP	Output	±5 V, raw stepped values with no smoothing
GATE	Output	10 V, 5 ms pulse on each new step
V/OCT IN → THRU	In / Out	Pass-through, so Drift can sit inline in a pitch chain

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Patch recipes

Breathing timbre. SMOOTH → DroneCore TIMBRE CV or DroneClone JAWARI CV, attenuverter +0.4, RATE 20%. Harmonic content that fades in and out over ten-second cycles.

Stepped transposition. STEP → Harmonic-Pressure PITCH CV, attenuverter +0.5, RATE 10%. The root moves in discrete jumps while the series above it stays internally in tune.

Stochastic percussion. GATE → Pulse TRG, RATE 60%, WANDER high. Irregular triggering that never settles into a bar. Add Swarm-Core on the same gate for insect calls at the same irregular spacing.

Clocked drift. A steady clock → SYNC, RATE set so a step lasts roughly one bar. The randomness stays, but it lands on the grid.

Structural pressure. SMOOTH → Wall-Conductor DENSITY CV at low RATE. The wall thickens and thins over minutes without anyone touching it.

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Known pairings

Module	Routing
DroneCore	SMOOTH → TIMBRE CV for slow harmonic wander
DroneClone	SMOOTH → JAWARI or DRIFT CV for a buzz that breathes
String-Mass-Core	SMOOTH → SPREAD CV for chorus without a chorus module
Wall-Conductor	SMOOTH → DENSITY CV for slow structural change
Pulse	GATE → TRG for irregular triggering
Harmonic-Pressure	STEP → PITCH CV to move the root in jumps

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See also

Pulse · Wall-Conductor · DroneCore · Playbooks

Full parameter spec: docs/modules/Drift.md